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At the beginning of June, the Choir Recording of the Year 2025 was announced. The selection was made jointly by the Finnish Amateur Musicians’ Association (Sulasol), the Finnish Choral Directors’ Association, and the Finnish Broadcasting Company (Yle). The award went to Jag är fri, the second full-length album by the Finnish Youth Choir.

On 4 January 1926, Jean Sibelius received a telegram from Walter Damrosch, conductor of the Symphony Society of New York. Damrosch commissioned a new symphonic poem for performance later that year, offering the Finnish composer 400 dollars for the first three performances. The work that emerged from the commission was Tapiola. Even before the score was completed, there was uncertainty about how the title Tapiola should be rendered in English.

“Lauda, lauda, laude,” sings the Celebrant, a.k.a. baritone Ville Rusanen, against an escalating orchestral and choral accompaniment. Lauda is a Latin word that means “praise”. We are at a performance of Leonard Bernstein’s magnum opus, MASS, at Ouluhalli. I am in Oulu, one of this year’s European Capitals of Culture, to find out what their catchphrase “cultural climate change” is all about.

The old lament tradition of Karelia, Ingria and Finland seems to be experiencing something of a renaissance, both as a practice people want to learn themselves and as the seed of new musical adventures. The ensemble Surento, a trio consisting of Liisa Matveinen, Emilia Kallonen and Emmi Kuittinen, combines traditional laments elegantly with their own creations on their debut album Sulatoin, reminding listeners of the breadth of the lament tradition.

Tove Jansson was a visual artist and author, creator of the Moomins. She also penned lyrics to songs some of which remain well known, such as the classic Höstvisa [Autumn song] by Erna Tauro. However, the extent of her lyric writing and the depth of her musical sensibility have remained largely unknown. This less known dimension of her work was unearthed by Emma Klingenberg through archival work that is one of the most significant achievements of recent years in upholding Jansson’s legacy.

Trumpeter Jukka Eskola and saxophonist Pauli Lyytinen explore rich landscapes of sound on four recent albums from the Tampere label Eclipse Music. The gentlest of these is Rabbit Hole, the debut album by Pauli Lyytikäinen Rabbit Hole, the multinational electroacoustic trio he has played with since 2019. The album incorporates three tracks they released on an EP last year, including the opening “Hanami” (Cherry Blossoms), with its gentle koto-like sound.

In February, the Finnish copyright organisation Teosto published an article titled “What’s Trending in Classical Music in 2026?” (in Finnish). One of the key points it raised was the prediction that concert conventions would be challenged. As concerts increasingly position the audience as an active participant in the artistic experience, the roles of creators are also expanding: new music appears ever more often as part of interdisciplinary artworks in which every element carries meaning.

Last year, the Sibelius Academy publication series released Taidemusiikin ja luonnon kosketuskohtia (“Encounters Between Art Music and Nature”, edited by Matti Huttunen and Eveliina Sumelius-Lindblom), an anthology shaped by the Music and Philosophy lecture-concert series (2011–2023). From its beginning, the series has held onto a simple but powerful idea: music and thought share equal ground. Concerts and lectures unfold sideby side, inviting both specialist insight and open, accessible dialogue.

In mid-April, as the fierce light of spring arouses nature from its dusty slumber, strange sounds are heard from Tampere. Finland’s second-largest urban area, with some 400,000 residents, hosts the Tampere Biennale every other year. This year’s festival, which runs 15–19 April, features 15 concerts and works by 80 composers. These include 35 premieres by composers ranging from the Sibelius Prize-winning Jukka Tiensuu (b. 1948) to Australian-born Marcus Hu (b. 2002).

Tampere Biennale prelude at Kaapelitehdas, 11 April 2026 That Saturday night, in the copper glow of Avanti’s hall tucked inside the brick labyrinth of Kaapelitehdas, the air was charged with that rarest anticipation: the moment just before a festival begins.